Monday, 17 September 2012

I don't seem to have found much time for painting recently, what with more building work on the house, holidays, a lot on at work and far too much time spent playing Mass Effect 3!

However, I have finally accepted that I have been neglecting my painting duties and got around to finishing a few models that have been hanging around in various painting and basing states.

So without further ado, onto the pretty pictures. First a German Mortar Team and extras from Armourfast.

These are cast in hard, grey plastic and are nicely detailed. You get 4 sprues, each sprue comes with the mortar, four crew and extra mortar bombs, ammo crates etc. There was some flash, particularly on the sub-machine gunner, as you'll see in the photos (I didn't do a great job of cleaning it up). The mortar comes in three parts, tube, baseplate and stand, and assembles easily enough. The only criticism is that the stand attaches to the tube at right angles, and doesn't look right at all, so I ended up doing a little trimming to make the angle look more acceptable.

This is my second attempt at 'Marsh Pattern' smocks and helmet covers, after the Italeri PAK40 Crew. I think this looks much better, but I'm open to suggestions on how to improve. The only downside is that these Armoufast guys are at the smaller end of 1:72/20mm, so they do look a little smaller against something like the Italeri bods.

Crew from the Airfix German Recon set. Still don't know why that MP40 seems to have a wooden stock...

I did a little research into this. The MP41 was basically the body and barrel of an MP40 fitted to the wooden butt and firing mechanism of the MP28. It seems it had a brief production run and was not introduced as a service weapon with the German Army, but saw limited use with SS and police units. Also exported to Romania. In light of these facts, it seems a rather unlikely sidearm for the Airfix recon chappy with his rather early war Heer appearance.

Hey there! Good job done!I think the Marsh Pattern is one of the most problematic camos, cause it easyly looks like an attempt to recreate the splinter pattern. Don't know how to help with that, sorry...I like the colors you have picked for the uniforms and helmets! One thing that seems odd, but it might just be the lighting, is the silverish look of the guns. The drybrush seems to be too hard there.I can suggest Humbrol Metal Cote "GunMetal". Just paint it on, wait a few seconds and then "polish" it with a Q-Tip!Regards, Mojo

Well, I suppose if it at least looks like one of the two camos I'll consider it a success of sorts!

The lighting isn't helping with the guns but you are quite right, they are too bright. I use GW Boltgun Metal over a black basecoat, then a black wash. I will try to tone it down with some more washes of black and a bit of brown (for that 'oiled' look), but I'll keep a look out for the Metal Cote as well. Thanks for the tip!